THAT PLAY: A SOLO MACBETH and SOUTHERN GOTHIC NOVEL Set for Stage Left Studio, May 2013

Stage Left Studio, 214 W. 30th Street, is celebrating its third Drama Desk nominated show, Tom Gualtieri and Heather Hill's That Play: A Solo Macbeth, with added performances May 2, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16 & 25 at 7:30pm. Nominated this year for "Unique Theatrical Experience" THAT PLAY has enjoyed a long run in New York City and continued rave reviews from both critics and audience.

Gualtieri and Hill have been lauded for their use of original text while re-telling the story in a way that questions the audience's own inner demons. Studio owner and producer Cheryl King shares, "The award is a celebration of hard work-of good work. I couldn't be more proud for them."

King has filled the May schedule with critically acclaimed shows and has invited former Stage Left/Drama Desk nominee Frank Blocker for a special performance on May 6 at 7:30pm. Blocker will perform his 2009 nominated comedy Southern Gothic Novel: The Aberdeen, Mississippi Sex-Slave Incident. Nominated for Outstanding Solo Performance, Southern Gothic Novel was dubbed an "Ovation Recommended" play by the LA Stage Alliance after its 12-week run at The Visceral Company in Hollywood, and received a 100% rating from the review source LA Bitter Lemons.

Blocker will also perform new hit Stabilized Not Controlled May 13 at 7:30pm. The dark comedy, set in rent-stabilized NYC, about man's love for property and need for home ran for 10 months at Stage Left Studio. The show will have its Los Angeles premiere at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in June 2013 at The Lex Theatre, produced by Cheryl King Productions at The Visceral Company's official Fringe venue.

That Play: A Solo Macbeth

May 2, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16 & 25 @ 7:30pm

Hill directs Gualtieri as he portrays the cast of witches and murderers, hauntingly accompanied by original music from Erin Hill and lighting design by Ellen Rosenburg.

Southern Gothic Novel

May 6 @ 7:30pm

Blocker's hilarious play that feels like a movie, about a pot-boiling Gothic book that doesn't exist. Heroine Viola Haygood throws herself at the handsome stranger in town, as young women are disappearing, criminals are running amok, and no one is as they seem.

Stabilized Not Controlled

May 13 @ 7:30pm

Evil landlord Joe Tennant goes to war with 12-stepping, rent-stabilized tenants of his 5-floor walk-up-including a septuagenarian sex addict-in a battle to the death.

Several other critically acclaimed shows are featured at Stage Left Studio in May. Be Careful! The Sharks Will Eat You (May 4 & 8 at 7:30pm and May 5 at 2:00pm) is a Fringe Festival multi-winner and has a national tour under his belt. Writer/performer Jay Alvarez returns to share his Cuban family's frightening and hilarious story of coming to America. In Grapefruit (May 7 at 7:30pm), Theresa Gambacorta directs Cheryl King in Sally Lambert's story of looking cancer in the eye and laughing at it to survive-all while navigating the health care industry. Home In Her Heart (May 19 at 2:00pm, & May 23 at 7:30pm) is Margaret Morrison's captivating story of choosing family or love in pre-World War I London. Ericka L. Hart stars as the piano accompanist to Morrison's drag king Jimmie LeRoy, bi-racial lesbian lovers faced with the obstacle of returning to America where they will lose their freedoms.

That Play: A Solo Macbeth marks the third Drama Desk award nomination for King's boutique performance space in midtown. In addition to Blocker in 2009, Juliette Jeffers received a nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance for self-penned, Batman and Robin in the Boogie Down.

Cheryl King PRODUCTIONS (producer) was formed in 2000 by Cheryl King. The company has produced several acting retreats, over 300 showcases, and three years of V-Day events. She is the creator of the Left Out Festival, an annual festival of gay performance art, which has been presented since 2008, and is a benefit for Bailey House and GMHC. For her work in promoting gay performance, she was chosen as one of the 100 Women We Love in GO Magazine's June 2008 Annual Pride Issue. In November 2008 she was chosen "Person of the Year" by nytheatre.com. She also created the Women At Work Festival, now in its fifth year, which contributes funds to The Girl Effect. Ms. King has curated solo shows for the Estrogenius Festival at ManhattanTheatreSource since 2005. In October 2010, she inaugurated the Mama Drama Festival, a festival of theater about mothers, at Stage Left. Cheryl King is currently starring in Sally Lambert's Grapefruit at Stage Left Studio, directed by Teresa Gambacorta.

Tom Gualtieri is a performer, playwright, lyricist and director who maintains an ongoing collaboration with composer David Sisco. They recently performed together to accolades in Sisco's Bait n' Swish at Stage Left Studio. Gualtieri & Sisco have completed their musical, Falling to Earth, and have begun their next: I'm Afraid, You're Afraid, 448 Things to Fear and Why. Tom has written book and lyrics for musical shorts, The Supper at Elsinore (composer: Joy Son) and Last Call, My Darling (composer: William Wade). He has provided additional material for Broadway Bares and scripted for the Drama Desk Awards. His staging of Daniel MacIvor's His Greatness played to sold- out houses and was a 4-star critic's pick in 2009 Time Out Fall Preview, eventually extending its run at the Soho Playhouse. Tom was Artistic Associate at National Actors Theatre where he was Associate Director on Right You Are with Tony Randall, Penny Fuller and Maria Tucci and Assistant to Abby Mann on NAT's Broadway production of The Judgment at Nuremberg with Maximillian Schell, George Grizzard and Marthe Keller. He was twice Associate Director to Nona Lloyd at NYMF: Sherlock Holmes: The Early Years and The Night of the Hunter in which he also appeared with Dee Hoty and Beth Fowler. He directed the premiere production of Shore Points by Richard Rodgers Award winner, Jeff Hughes. Tom has acted opposite JoAnne Woodward in Hay Fever, Marin Mazzie in South Pacific (choreography by Rob Marshall) and had principal roles inPrivates on Parade, Dragapella!, Show Me Where the Good Times Are, A Midsummer Nights Dream, The Rivals, Cloud 9. Film work includes the award-winning short Bedfellows, as well as Fade to White, Rubberneck Disease, Blinding Goldfish and That's All She Wrote. He is a proud original cast member of Off-Broadway's Naked Boys Singing. Tom is the recipient of the Best Actor award from the National Gay & Lesbian Theatre Festival for Bait. He is an advanced member of the BMI Workshop and was trained at Syracuse University. www.gualtieriandsisco.com

Heather Hill (Director/Co-Adaptor), a native of Kentucky, is a playwright, lyricist, and librettist. Her plays have received readings and workshops at numerous theaters, including The Royal Court, the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, England, The New Group, Primary Stages, The Vineyard Theater, The Kitchen Theatre, The Belt, and Horizon Theater Company in Atlanta. Her play Notes from the Confederacy was developed under the mentorship of A.R. Gurney and the Cherry Lane Theater. Her play Eulogy for Boris the Relic Hunter, commissioned by The Regional Theater Company, was included in RTC's festival of shorts. Ms. Hill directed and co-adapted (with Tom Gualtieri) That Play: a Solo Macbeth, which enjoyed a sold out run at the Midtown International Fringe Festival. Ms. Hill went on to direct That Play at The Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca, as well as The Belt in New York. Her play Heathens was recently premiered at Theater for the New City. Ms. Hill is the recipient of two Hopwood Drama Awards, as well as a grant from The Kentucky Foundation for Women. In addition, she is a two-time finalist for The Princess Grace Award and a finalist for the Manhattan Theatre Club Fellowship. She received her M.F.A. from Columbia University where she was a Presidential Scholar. She is a member of the BMI Musical Theater Workshop. www.heatherhillplaywright.com

Frank Blocker is a bi-coastal actor, playwright, singer and coach, his plays include Southern Gothic Novel (Drama Desk Award nominee, LA Stage Alliance "Ovation Recommended"), Eula Mae's Beauty, Bait & Tackle (off-Broadway, Jose Quintero Theatre), award-winning Patient Number, The Wisconsinners, Good Jew and 2012 hit Stabilized Not Controlled. Favorite stage roles include Mortimer in Brecht's Edward II, Usher in Berkoff's Fall of the House of Usher (Backstage Magazine Best of 2004), Mr. Peachum in The Beggar's Opera, a prisoner on the streets in Peculiar Works Project's Obie-winning West Village/East Village Fragments...and of course, the NYC debut of The Deep Throat Sex Scandal! And cabaret Songs of Viscera with composer Garth Koren. Film/TV credits: Law & Order:SVU and short films Lester and Maryam, Red Moonflower Blooming, and The Anniversary. He next appears at the Hollywood Fringe Festival with Stabilized Not Controlled in June 2013. He is the winner of Inner Voices Social Issues Award, publisher ofStage THIS! collections of plays and monologues, and recently choreographed for Kill Me for The Visceral Company in Hollywood. www.frankblocker.com

For more information, viist www.StageLeftStudio.net, www.solomacbeth.com, www.southerngothicnovel.com and http://emerging.freewebspace.com/Frank_Blocker_Plays/Stabilzed_Not_Controlled.htm.

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